musical musings from the frozen north:
torontopia, mont royal city and kawartha kottages

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Yes, I'm going to Hillside

It’s
Hillside time again. Time to celebrate 32 years of the Guelph festival's community spirit,
groundbreaking programming and musical memories. But it’s no secret that
Hillside—which blossomed from its local folkie roots to sold-out weekends with
international headliners—has had a tough time in recent years, partially
because of its own success: its family-friendly, multi-genre, foodie focus has
been emulated by non-folk festivals in Toronto, Hamilton and beyond.

Now
there’s a major big-budget festival competing on the same weekend near
Barrie—you know the one—with a lineup that has likely sucked away the
twenty- and thirtysomethings of the Guelph/K-W area. One of the headlining acts of that
festival this year, Arcade Fire, got its first big break in Ontario playing to
a packed Hillside tent the summer before their breakthrough album came out.

There
were many times in the last 10 years when I heard Guelphites complain that
Hillside was too big, too crowded, and too hard to get tickets. They had a
point. Last year, however, the dip in ticket sales actually improved my own
Hillside experience—though I’m sure no one in the Hillside office wants to hear
me say that (disclosure: I volunteer every year as an MC). There was actually
room to move around the site; there were no lineups to get into tents; it was
much easier to catch up with friends and still see the calibre of music I’ve
always expected from Hillside, even if there were only two acts (Daniel Lanois,
Michael Franti) who could be considered major headliners (and I missed both
sets—parenting has changed my festival habits).

It’s
admittedly hard for festival programmers with no headliners to say: trust us,
it’s going to be great. This year the only big names are young American folk
duo the Milk Carton Kids and Canadian songwriting legend Buffy Sainte-Marie,
who’s on the comeback trail with an award-winning album and will be appearing
with the Sadies as the Sunday closer. But while Milk Carton Kids are somewhat
high-profile, they’re also niche, and as much as I worship Buffy, I’m not
convinced she’s enough of a commercial draw.

So cue the former Hillside
faithful who are now complaining that they haven’t heard of anybody on this
year’s bill, and so they’re either a) headed to That Other Festival or b)
staying home. Even though the entire point of Hillside—indeed, the point on
which it built its reputation—was that it was a place of discovery, a place
where artists just starting to get a critical rep were put on stages in front
of hundreds, if not thousands of people, a place where open-minded audiences
who might only go to one major musical event a year fell in love with artists
that would sell out larger venues (or festivals) in the space of a couple of years.

As a recent article in the Waterloo Record illustrated,
Hillside is sounding a bit desperate this year. Other Canadian festivals have
cancelled this year (Squamish, Wolfe Island), due to saturation as well as the
weak Canadian dollar (because even major Canadian acts, many of whom are
handled exclusively by U.S. booking agents, get paid in US$). Other than the
behemoth festivals, everyone else is trying to get by with smaller names with
smaller draws. Which is where the experience comes into play. If you have the
choice to stand in any random field and watch a bunch of good-to-great music, then
it’s all the other factors that will shape your decision: the expense, the food, the physical space, the
access to shade, the beer lines, the bathroom lines, and whether the audience
is comprised of boozed-up bros or families or something in between.

In this
otherwise wonderful and passionate defence of
Hillside and small festivals, Will McGuirk puts the question to Canadian artists
performing at WayHome this year instead of Hillside: shouldn’t you remember the
festival who gave you a big break? Have you no loyalty? By taking the
(presumably) bigger cheque, are you undermining the infrastructure that made
your success possible?

I don’t
buy that argument. For starters, the Hillside/WayHome crossover includes acts
with wildly different audience bases: of course Arcade Fire is not going to
play Hillside again (turning it into a complete zoo and bankrupting the festival),
and considering the wallop of international acts at WayHome, acts like
BadBadNotGood, Bahamas, Stars, Shad and the Arkells are little more than a
rounding error in that festival's budget. Also, if those five acts, for example, played
Hillside again this year, then Hillside would start to look pretty stale and
repetitious. Finally, with few exceptions (i.e. Arcade Fire in 2005), I’d
suggest that most artists are happy to surrender their schedules to their
bookers. It’s the bookers’ job to find the biggest cheques and the biggest
opportunities for their artists. And God knows every musician has to take every
paycheque they can these days.

Because
of its size, Hillside will always be a farm-team festival: an incubator for the
upstarts, a step down from the major leagues for old-timers. Hillside will
never, ever, be able to book a major artist at the height of their popularity.
That’s not the point. Hillside, for me and hopefully others, is an experience,
one that should be full of surprises. There are many acts this year I’ve never
heard of before that I’m looking forward to (bands from Mongolia and the
Bahamas, Son Little, Versa), acts I love that I’ve never had the chance to see
(Un Blonde, Tuns, Rose Cousins, Ben Caplan, Esmerine, Fond of Tigers), and acts
I’d go see any day of the week (Holy Fuck, Lemon Bucket Orchestra, Jennifer
Castle).

I’ll see
you there. And maybe at Camp Wavelength in Toronto. And maybe at Arboretum in Ottawa. And maybe at Sandbanks in Prince Edward County.

Here’s a
look at two Hillside 2016 artists not yet reviewed in this column, and a look
at more sure-to-be-highlights.

Donovan
Woods – Hard Settle, Ain't Troubled (Meant Well)

This
songwriter from Sarnia recently landed a publishing deal in Nashville, where
he’s written songs for Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw. He
writes about that experience on the bittersweet “Leaving Nashville,” where he
talks about “Friends of friends with country stars who are buying homes and
here you are, two weeks from sleeping in your car.” It’s hard to imagine the
soft-spoken Woods singing a country hit himself—his voice is more Sufjan
Stevens than Brad Paisley—but there’s no denying his skill as a songwriter, of
which there is plenty of evidence on this, his third album, recently
long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize.

Stream: “Leaving
Nashville,” “They Don’t Make Anything in That Town,” “On the Nights You Stay
Home”

Xylouris
White – Goats (Other Music)

Hillside
this year is not lute-free. That’s because virtuoso Cretan lute player George
Xylouris is bringing his duo with dexterous drummer Jim White (Dirty Three,
Nick Cave, PJ Harvey) to town, still promoting this (largely) instrumental 2014
debut album. The lute gets a bad rap: we know it only from Greek restaurants or
because we confuse it for an oud on Leonard Cohen records. But like any string
instrument, it’s all about the player, not the tool. Xylouris is an entrancing
player, drawing from styles on every side of the Mediterranean, filtering it
through his doom-laden modal blues style. White is an ideal dancing partner, a
master of nuance, not to mention one of the most fascinating drummers you’ll
ever have the pleasure to watch.

Stream:
“Pulling the Bricks,” “Suburb,” “Chicken Song”

15 more
reasons to go to Hillside this year:

Ben
Caplan: A big-throated baritone with a carnivalesque bark who will go over big
with Tom Waits fans.

Choir!
Choir! Choir!: They’ve filled the AGO and Massey Hall to lead singalong
tributes to David Bowie and Prince, but it’s not necessary for legends to die in
order for this large ensemble to have fun.

Esmerine:
Guelph drummer Jamie Thompson joins these members of Godspeed You Black
Emperor’s extended family for gorgeous, cello-driven instrumentals.

Gregory
Pepper and his Problems: This prolific Guelph pop provocateur has been making
catchy records since 2007, but he’s still making new converts. You could be
next.

Holy Fuck:
The live electronic rock band from Toronto return from a six-year hiatus,
during which keyboardist Graham Walsh became one of Canada’s most in-demand
producers (Metz, Operators), with what is sure to be an explosive set.

Land of
Talk: Speaking of a six-year hiatus, Guelph’s Liz Powell has been MIA since
2010. Let’s hope this appearance is a sign of new material.

Lemon
Bucket Orchestra: Simply one of the best live bands you’ll ever see, this
multi-culti Ukrainian musical circus has been spreading their gospel around the
world.

McGarrigle
Family Slideshow: Anna McGarrigle, sister Jane and various extended family
members including a “secret guest” (likely Rufus or Martha Wainwright) pay
tribute to the late Kate.

Noah 23:
This veteran Guelph MC puts out at least three albums a year. Time to play
catch-up.

Tuns: If
you a) grew up in the ’90s loving Sloan and their spawn or b) haven’t loved a
rock band of any kind in years, then you need to see this new supergroup with
members of Sloan, Super Friendz and the Inbreds. This is a can’t-miss.

Un
Blonde: Mysterious, lo-fi, gospel-tinged, experimental folk music from this
19-year-old Calgarian who found himself on the Polaris Prize long list.